Deflection waveform generator



Jal 3, 1956 B. s. vlLKoMERsoN DEFLECTION WAVEFORM GENERATOR Filed Nov. 2, 1950 m n KQ mk NQ NRW@ um k...

United States Patent-O The present inventionrelates to improvements; in` the design and construction of oscillators? andmultivibrators of the typeusedtol generatewaveforms of predetermined contour andffrequency, andmore particularly" although` not necessarily exclusively; tota novel" arrangement` for synchronizingandf stabilizingi theoperation of suchl wave generators:

In more particula'rity-the present invention relates to an improved' multivibrator typeJ4 savv-tootli deflectioi'r genL erator which has improved synchronizing characteristics; The useAA of cathodera'y beamf devices? ford generating andi visually reproducing ele'ctrical signalinformationhis steadily increasing inpopularity; In1 alarge'number of cases it is necessary to provideboth vertical and horizontal deflection inuences ifo-the i electron beamy embodied in the cathode ray device;A Forexample,` inf present day television receivers wide? useS is madeof a cathode-ray beam deviceknown asiaL kiesc'opefforl visually reproducing the televisionE scene: The ki'ne'scope requires both horizontal andvertical beam deilectioni` In most instances it is found tirati very accurate control of the deflection-frequencieslandithepliase ofthe deection action must lie-maintained in@ order' tof produce desirable results. This i`s` especially true"` ini-the television art. Inr presentday television receivers tlie=ve`rti`ca`l and `-horizontal deiiection waveforms for' the reproducing kinescope` are usuallygenerated by oscillatorsL or mltivibrat'orsLw-hich are precisely synchronize'dl by tlie synchronizing component of the received television' signal; Iu` ordertoobtain maximum precision inthev synchronizing process, thev deflection Waveformgenerating circuits must bef designed to have high noise immunit-y so that-static bursts and1 other spurious signalstreceived by the television `receiver d'ownot adversely effect the timingof the deflection circuits:

Although considerablel progressihas been made -in the y television arti in the*A provision of* higher noise immunity cleiiection circuits, most? of-"tliis Work has been in they directionl of improving higher frequency? de'ection circuits such as, for example; the horizontal or' line deflection circuit of a television receiver; One of thetetin'iquesH deflection circuit in television receivers is commonly re'-v ferred to as-AFC` (Automatic FrequencytControlL) opera tion. Such a circuitis clearly" set fortlil in:` aln'-` articlejentitled Television Receivers by Anthony R. Wright, ap'- pering. in the Rev for March;` i947. However, dueto the'expense andilong` time' constants involved AFG techniqueshave" noti beena generally applied to `lower frequency deiiec'tio'n circ'uitssuch as' the vertical detiection system of a televisionrec'eiver. There therefore remains considerable roomI for' improvements in, noise immunity techniques suitable for application: to` cathode ray beam deflection systems, particularly of the lower frequency variety.

Although the present invention will hereinafter be described in connection with. the needs and environment of television receiver deflection systemsit will be apparent that the principles of the presentinventiori can be advan- 2,729,744 Patented Jan. 3, 1956 tageosly appliedl to'1-most'tany .typeioff deflection system vitirator,^b1ockngi oscillating. or.'` relaxation oscillator disl chargeltube'actioni.

Itiisithe'refore aipurposeoffthwpresent invention` to pro.-

vide: an improved 2' signal waveform". i generating circuiti of theitype(thatfmay1 be' accurately synchronized' by acontrol Itlisa" further vobject' of the presenti `invention to provide an improved deflection waveformgenerator. circuit for television receiversnwhichlhas improved noise` immunity characteristics over mosti :prior art arrangements.

It'` istatr further obje'ctlol tlie presenti inventionY to.; provide a simple, inexpensive: yet improved multivibrator' type dee'ction: system particularly suited' for. the: generation of` verticali deectionl waveformss `irrtelevision receivers and` which h'asi ai considerably highernoisejmmunity ands phase;

and'-A frequency stabilityithan: heretofore foundl inmost prior art.arrangenzi` entsi i In: they realizatontof the* above: objects .and featuresl ofi advantage the; presencfinvention: contemplates ther` use; of ani` electroni-discharge tube having; its output4 circuit i con` nected `as a: conventional sawLt'ooth. capacitor discharge means.. rIz'heinput andi output circuits of the discharge; tubez: are-furthert-A connected in regenerative:` relationshipl with each. otheribyaany.I suitablemeans so` asY to-provid'e, recurrentand periodic states' ofconduction and-homeco-` presentg inventiom as -v/ellr as a fuller appreciation of its objects and-` additional features of advantage will; be ob-` tained` from: a.` reading of the.V following specification especially when: takennin` connectionr with the accompany-- ingidrawitigs, inrwliich: t

Figurerl islaacornbination bloei; and schematic representationof az television receiver, tite vertical dedection circuitsof which-.embody therpresent invention, and

FigureZ is aigraphical.representation of certain wave forms which: are: helpfulr to the` understanding of the` presenttfinvention.

The complete:4 teievisionnreceiven of Figure l` constitutes aitelevision signalreeeiver lhaviugits input connested with an antenna` 12; Theblocklimay, of.course include ai radiofrequency` tuner,` a superheterodyne con.- verter,.anintermediate;frequency amplifier, a signal detectonxandr' a: videoA amplifierf as for, example, shown` in the.-` above` identified' article@ by` Anthony R.` Wright, appearing in` the? KCA Review. The: demcdulatedi televisionisignal.appearingzatlthe output terminal 14 of; the receiver 1i) ist, ofi coursegt applied to the input` of the. kinescope 16 for intensity modulation of the electron beam: therein.` The kinescope 16' will, of course, be provided with suitableibn'ghtness circuits and beam accelerating `potential connections whichV have not` been, shown: in'` thef drawing. The beam in the kinescope 1'6 is adapted for electromagnetic deilection by means ci the deflection coil' 18J having vertical: and horizontal deflection; windings.. at 20` and. 22` respectively.

TheY output of4 the receiver 1.0 is further applied to the input of` some' forml of sync separator circuit 24. As; shown in the above-` RCA Review article the sync separator circuit` separates the synchronizing component ofI the received television signal' fromithe Video frequency components; The output 0f the sync separator 24 isl i on the tube 48 commences.

t 3 then applied to the horizontal deiiectioncircuit 26 for synchronization thereof as described in the above identi* tied article entitled Television Receivers. The horizontal deilection, circuit usually differentiates the separated sync so as to extract only horizontal `(high freag'raefrat` quency) synchronizing information and applies this horii zontal synchronizing information to Van automatic frequency control circuit which regulates. the `frequency and phase of the horizontal deilection circuit. The output of the horizontal deflection circuitv26fis, of course, available `at terminals x-x which are intended for connec-` tion to the corresponding terminals x-,x of the horizontal yoke deflection winding 20.`

The output of the sync separator` 24 is also applied to the input 28` of an integrating network comprising,

resistances 3i), capacitance 32, resistance 34, `capacitance 36 and resistance 38. The action of this integrating network to Vpass only vertical` synchronizing information i (low frequency variations) and discriminate against the horizontal synchronizing signals (high frequency vari-` ations) is well-known` in the art. The vertical sync tion. The action of the Vfly-back pulse is to cause grid current to flow in the tube 48 with the consequent charging of the capacitors 42and 92. Due to the charging of these capacitors as soon as the fly-back pulse terminates `the control grid 46 of tube 48 will'be left highly negative beyond plate, currentcut-off. This will allow the saw-tooth capacitor 62 to commerce charging and thus begin the deection cycle of the cathode `ray beam. .As is well known this deflection cycle can be synchronized through the appli'cationof positive going o sync pulses to the-grid 46 of the tube 48. Thecon- V nections already described on the output of the integrat-V ing circuit to the grid of the tube 48 serve this purpose. The positive going syncpulse initiates conduction in the tube 48 to define the beginning ofthe reference interval and hence the beginning ofthe next deflection cycle.

appearing at the output terminal of the integratingV v cludes a saw-tooth discharge circuit comprising capacitor 62 in series with peaking resistor 64. The output circuit of tube 48 is capacitivly coupled by a capacitor `66 to the input circuit of tube 68. The input circuit of this tube includes the resistance 70 connected from the,`

grid of the `tube to ground. Thecathode 72 of tube 68 is connected through a variable degeneration control potentiometer 74 and through iixed resistance 76 to ground. The tube 68 is connected as a triode output l amplifier for deflection signals and as such has its anodeY and screen electrode connected to the upper terminal of theV deflection output transformer primary 78. The lower terminal of the transformer primary 78 is connected with a source of positive B potentialhaving a terminal at 38., Capacitor 82 merely acts as a conventional decoupling capacitor. To complete the out put circuit for the tube 68 a capacitor 84 is connected in shunt with the primary winding inductance, 7S. ThisV is well-known in the artand acts to increase the retrace interval of the deiiection output stage..

To obtain self-excited oscillation and generationV of deflection `signals the upper terminal of the detlection t transformerprimary winding 78 isrregeneratively coupled to the input circuit of the tube 48 via the network comprising'resistance 86, capacitance 88, resistance 90, capacitance 92 and resistance 94.` The vertical deection" signal is applied to the vertical deection yoke winding 22 by means of Vits connection to the output terminals y-y of the output transformer secondary 96; t

o The operation of the deliection circuit thus fardef scribed is `conventional in form and forms no part of Inbrief the charging of capacitor i e present invention. 62 produces the saw-tooth waveform for the excitation of the output tube 68. After the capacitor 62 has charged in saw-tooth fashion up to a `certain potential Aso as to increase the plate voltage on the tube 48, conduction This decreases `the current tiow through the dellection outputtransformer winding 78 and causes a `positive going pulse `to appear atrthe upper terminal thereof. This positive pulse, commonly The operation of the deiiection circuit which is described although well-known in the art, may be most clearly analyzed through the use of the waveforms shown in `Figures 2a, `2b and 2c. Figure 2a depicts the voltage appearing at theupper terminal of the deflection output transformer primary winding 78 which is the plate voltage of the tube 68. The rather linear sloping part 98 of the curve in 2a represents the linear charging of saw-tooth capacitor 62, Whereas the steep upward going `swing liti@ corresponds to the positive ily back pulse previously described. The downward and upward going pulses 82,

184 of the curve in 2a represent ringing of the output trans# former primary 78 taken in connection with its capacitance i 84. The point 186 in curve 2a represents non-conduction in the tube 48 and the beginning of the linear charge of saw-tooth capacitor 62. VThe counterpartof the voltage wave form shown in Figure 2a is of course apparent on the grid 46 of the saw-tooth discharge tube 48 and is shown in VFigure 2b. By means of the feed back network i Vconnected from the outputV of tube 68 to the input of tube .43, the iiy'bacl; pulse shown in Figure 2a is substantially 'A broadened to appear as shown at 108 in Figure 2b. The

referred to as a"fiyback. pulse is fed'back to thegrid Y 46 of the tube 48 `to further drive the tube into conducdownward going portion of the curve in FigureV 2b represents the previously described negative swing of the i tube 46 at the termination of the fly back pulse. The actualplatel cut-olf grid voltage onthe tube 48 Vmay be` t at some level represented bythe dash line i12 sothat it is seen that the grid voltage swings considerably past cut-off. The upward sloping Ysection 114 of the curve in 2b reprelsents the'rather slow discharge of the capacitors42, 92

etc. that previously obtained charge dueto grid current- While the tube 48 iscut-otf the grid voltage 46 as shown in FigureZb slowly increases as does also the plate voltage appearing acrosscapacitor 62. Prettysoon the point llo of the tube48 conducts and initiates ,the y back pulse discussed above. The curve in Figure 2c ofcourse depicts the voltage appearing at the right hand terminal of capaci-' torL 62. rThe section 146 of the curve in Figure 2c represents the linear charge time of the capacitor 62. Section 118 ofthe curve 2cjrepresents the rapid discharge of the capacitor 62due to conduction of thetube 48. The rapid rising portion 120 of Vthe curve 2c represents the voltage rise due to the no longer existent voltage drop across the peaking resistor 64 upon non-conduction of the tube 48. Non-conduction in the tube 48 is indicated at point 122 in Figure 2c. l Y

. From the above it can be seen that should any stray circuit voltages appear on the grid 46 of tube 48 at a time during the downward sloping portion 110 of curve 2b and more particularly in the immediate vicinity of. the voltage Y level 112 the capacitor 62 would be eitherdischarged for a slightly longer period orV just the reverse, not discharged the normal period depending upon the polarity of the signal. A Vspurious signal which would cause the grid 46 to go slightly positive as the voltage passed the level M2 in Figure 2b, would cause the capacitor 62 to discharge slightly more than it would have if the spurious signal had been absent. This effect will of course cause interlacing 75 difficulties inthe reproduced television image. A very common source of spurious signal in the particular circuit shown is the horizontal ily back pulse which may be capacitively or electromagneticaily coupled from the horizontal deflection winding to the vertical deflection winding of the detiection yoke and nds its way through the vertical deflection output transformer onto the grid 46 of the discharge tube 48.

According to the present invention the noise immunity of a waveform generating circuit of the general type shown in Fig. 1 is greatly enhanced through the provision of a capacitor 124 connected between the anode and grid of the discharge tube 48. This capacitor has the novel effect shown by Figure 2d. Figure 2d illustrates the Voltage appearing at the right hand terminal of capacitor 62 on the anode voltage of the tube 48 as did Figure 2c. Figure 2d however shows this voltage as it appears as a result of the present invention. By means of the capacitor 124 the voltage on the plate of tube 48 is kept from swinging immediately positive in response to the absence or" voltage across the peaking resistor 44. Upon cutoi of the tube 4S at point 122 of Figure 2d, instead of the voltage immediately swinging upward on the anode of tube 48, the additional voltage available across the capacitor 62 goes into charging the capacitor 124 as shown by the line 126 in Figure 2d. This means that the plate voltage on tube 48 will be kept down to a lower value at a time when the grid 46 of tube 48 accomplishes its down* ward swing 110 shown in Figure 2b. In this way the possibility of additional conduction or discharge of the capacitor 62 due to spurious signals on the grid 46 is reduced since it takes a greater amplitude of signal at the point 112 in Figure 2b to prolong conduction for any appreciable time at the reduced plate voltage of tube 48 due to the novel action of capacitor 124. Thus the capacitor 124 acts as a means to maintain the conduction level of tube 48 at a lower value in response to voltage variations in the input circuit of this tube and hence provides an automatic and periodic noise immunizing eifect on the deection circuit at a time when such noise immunity is greatly needed.

In practice it is found that the addition of the capacitor 124 to any type of multivibrator circuit similar to that shown in the gure greatly enhances the phase stability of the system and therefore improves the operation of the waveform generating circuit. It is to be understood that although an explanation of the effect or providing the capacitor 124 between the anode and grid of the tube 48 has been given with respect of the particular circuit shown, such description of theory is to in no way to limit the present invention. In practice I have found that a value of stabilizing capacitor 124 of between 100 and 500 micro microfarads is optimum for most circuits of the type shown in the figure. For the particular deilection shown greater values than this tends to load the primary winding 78 of the deection output transformer too heavily. However, where such a loading problem does not exist greater values than 500 micromicrofarads could be used with benecial results.

In this regard it will be observed that the strategic placement of the capacitor 124 between the anode and control electrode of the grid 48 allows reduction in the actual size of capacitor used for a given voltage damping action on the anode of tube 48 described above. Thus a 200 micromicrofarad capacitor connected between the anode and grid of the tube 48 will, due to the negative going potential on the grid 46 at a time when the anode of the tube 48 is swinging positive, have the eiect of a capacitor of much larger value. It is for this reason that a sucient capacitor to accomplish the improved interlacing and noise immunity effects of the present invention can in fact be realized across the anode and grid of the tube 48 without producing excessive loading of either the deection output transformer primary or an intolerable increase in the time constant of the saw-tooth charging circuit of which capacitor 62 is a major part.

It will therefore be apparent from the description of the particular embodiment of the present invention shown` in the drawing that the improved noise immunity provided by the present invention is applicable to other multivibrators, blocking oscillators and relaxation oscillator circuits than those particularly suited for deflection circuit purposes.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is:

In a cathode ray beam sawtooth deliection signal generating circuit the combination of: a circuit potential datum means for the circuit elements as hereinafter defined; a source of periodically recurrent synchronizing signals subject to fortuitous interference by stray random signals; an electron discharge tube having an anode, cathode and control electrode; an anode power supply source for said tube delivering a positive potential referenced to said datum means; a first resistor galvanically connected from said anode to said positive potential source to form an output circuit; a first capacitor; a peaking resistor connected in series with said capacitor to form a sawtooth defining network; means connecting said sawtooth dening network between said anode and said datum means in charging relation to said power source through said rst resistor and in discharging relation to said tube when conducting, the value of said iirst resistor, said peaking resistor and condenser being chosen to provide a substantially linear sawtooth waveform at said anode upon the causing of periodic conduction and non-conduction in said tube at a frequency corresponding to that of said synchronizing pulses; galvanically conductive input impedance means having substantial resistance; means connecting said input impedance means in galvanically conducting relation between said control electrode and said datum means to form an input circuit through which control electrode current may flow; a second capacitor connected between said control electrode and said datum means in charging relation to input circuit potentials resulting from control electrode current iiow to form in combination with said impedance a time constant biasing means having a time constant less than the period of said synchronizing signals; regenerative feed back means coupled with said tube regeneratively feeding back output circuit signals to said input circuit with such magnitude as to cause periodic grid current ilow in said tube followed by plate current cutoi therein, the voltage on said irst capacitor increasing in a charging manner during intervals of said plate current cutoi; and a third capacitor having a value in excess of micromicrofarads connected substantially directly between said anode and said control electrode to reduce the voltage rise at said anode immediately following conduction in said tube to minimize the likelihood of stray random signals immediately following said synchronizing signals producing random conduction in said tube.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,241,762 Blumlein May 13, 1941 2,300,524 Roberts Nov. 3, 1942 2,461,871 Bass Feb. 15, 1949 2,482,150 Bocciarelli Sept. 20, 1949 2,494,241 Haantjes et al Jan. 10, 1950 2,546,918 Branson Mar. 27, 1951 2,549,764 Bartels Apr. 24, 1951 2,564,588 Wenot Aug. 14, 1951 2,594,104 Washburn Apr. 22, 1952 2,627,025 Trembly Jan. 27, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 535,778 Great Britain Apr. 22, 1941 

